Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 471: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he has had any response from developers to his request that they act without delay and address the problems of unfinished so-called ghost estates; if he is disappointed at the response; his views on any other measures to force developers to fulfil all of their responsibilities in terms of any estates that they may have left unfinished; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22171/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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I have established and am chairing the National Co-ordination Committee on Unfinished Housing Developments to oversee implementation of the Report of the Advisory Group on Unfinished Housing Developments, entitled Resolving Ireland's Unfinished Housing Developments, together with the Government's response to the recommendations entitled Resolving Unfinished Housing Developments. Both reports are available on my Department's website - www.environ.ie.

The Committee will be meeting on a regular basis with the aim of publishing a report on progress achieved within the next 12 months. At the national level, I am encouraged by the strong consensus and commitment among the key stakeholders who are participating on the Committee and, at the local level, I understand that planning authorities are already making progress in securing the co-operation of developers, financial institutions and/or bondholders in seeking to resolve urgent public safety works and in preparing site resolution plans for these housing developments.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 472: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if there will be any more tranches of money available under the Resolving Ireland's Unfinished Housing Developments programme to address the public safety issues associated with unfinished estates; if so, when this money will be allocated and the local authorities that will receive same; the mechanism that will be used to claw back this money from the developers concerned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22172/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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I introduced the Unfinished Housing Developments Safety Initiative earlier this year as a response to the issues identified in the report of the high level group set up to assess the issue. My primary concern was to make safe those estates which posed a safety risk to the public and where funds to remedy these issues could not be ordinarily accessed by means of completion bonds or pursuit of developers.

An allocation of €5 million was made available by my Department and local authorities were invited to make applications for funding to alleviate the problems in those instances that qualified for the funds.

To date 237 developments have been identified as qualifying for funding and submissions have been received in the case of 146 of these. The balance of submissions and associated claims are anticipated shortly. Allocations of €1.4 million have been approved by my Department in the case of 58 estates, as outlined in the following table. The remaining 88 applications are being evaluated and allocations will be issued shortly.

The scheme was initiated as a health and safety initiative and was driven by the urgency of the situation. The local authorities are required to pursue recovery of funds expended from those developers and bond issuers who remain liable for the works.